SPOILER WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for West Coast Avengers #1 by Kelly Thompson, Stefano Caselli and Stefano Caselli.
It has been a very eventful week in Marvel Comics. Venom just got a new superpower, a long-time Spider-Man villain has reemerged and Captain Marvel's rebooted origin story just gets stranger and stranger. But those are hardly the biggest revelations of the week. That award goes to West Coast Avengers #1, which hit the weird comic book motherlode by seemingly introducing a sexy version of M.O.D.O.K. No one could blame you if you had to reread that sentence a few times. It’s a lot to take in.
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Nonetheless, it's true. Marvel Comics somehow found a way to turn the evil super-genius scientist who also happens to be an enormous, floating, grotesque head into a dashing young man who likes to kiss (but also still has a big head). Yeah, it's just like that out here on the West Coast. The M.O.D.O.K. offshoot in question is named aptly named B.R.O.D.O.K. Whereas M.O.D.O.K. stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, B.R.O.D.O.K.'s acronym breaks down to Bio-Robotic Organism Designed Overwhelmingly for Kissing. Readers get a glimpse at B.R.O.D.O.K.'s "powers" at play when he lands a wet one right on Kate Bishop's lips.
How B.R.O.D.O.K.'s powers (if we're going to stoop to calling them that) will play into helping -- or hindering -- the nascent West Coast Avengers team is anyone's guess, but he's not to be wholly discounted. He's visually concerning and his penchant for nonconsensual kissing is worrying at best, but don’t underestimate him. Not just yet. The reason for that is that West Coast Avengers #1 is seeded with references to science gone amok. Genetic abnormalities and clones gone awry tend to lead back to A.I.M., once a criminal organization of rogue scientists that gave no end of grief to the Marvel Universe's many heroes.
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The organization was scattered to the wind a few years ago, fracturing into sects like W.H.I.S.P.E.R. and the more benevolent R.E.S.C.U.E., all while the A.I.M. named continued to be used by the organization's most fringe-but-fervent adherents. West Coast Avengers #1 might signal their return in a big way, or it could be teasing a new splinter group looking to claim the mantle of Marvel's resident mad scientists.
B.R.O.D.O.K. is the latest in a long line of iterations on M.O.D.O.K. Marvel has long been unafraid to tweak the villain's defining acronym to spawn new, bizarre creations. For example, Incredible Hulk #290 introduced the world to Ms. M.O.D.O.K., a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who was turned into a mirror image of the villain in an attempted coup by A.I.M. Most M.O.D.O.K. offshoots are minor characters played for laughs, though. B.R.O.D.O.K. has all the hallmarks of a character created for the sake of a goof, but West Coast Avengers #1 teases there there's a lot more going on beneath that pretty boy veneer and frighteningly weighty cranium.
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The trouble starts just as West Coast Avengers #1 does, with Kate Bishop (otherwise known as the other Hawkeye) having already engaged a flock of land sharks. The sharks are tearing through the California boardwalk in a way only sharks can. Kate quickly realizes she's out of her depth and calls in America Chavez to teleport in the other Hawkeye, Clint Barton. The two Hawkeyes make quick work of the land sharks by driving them back into the ocean. Back at West Coast Avengers headquarters (otherwise known as Kate's tiny renovated apartment) Clint makes the sound assessment that, while Kate's solution was a clever one, it was also just a stopgap. Those land sharks were created by someone, he reasons, and they'll likely be back, or something even worse.
Something even worse does show up towards the end of the issue in the form of a gigantic Tigra, whose newfound enormous size seems to have come with a side of blind rage. Much like the land sharks, Tigra is tearing up the California boardwalk. The West Coast Avengers try to talk reason into the giant superhero, be she's not responding. Just as the crew opts to use Quentin Quire's psychic abilities to mentally shutdown the giantess, in strides B.R.O.D.O.K., who passionately kisses Kate and claims he possesses all the answers to the Tigra mess. What that answer is, exactly, remains to be seen until West Coast Avengers #2, but it's probably related to kissing a very, very tall woman with fur and stripes.
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The issue also follows Kate's efforts to fill out her West Coast Avengers roster, but the interviews don't go so hot. She does end up recruiting Gwenpool -- a somewhat legitimate superhero -- to her side, though, so it's not all bad news. With Gwenpool comes yet more evil science connections, and they're big ones, too. With all this talk about M.O.D.O.K., it's worth noting that the villain's name was also used to form an alternate take on A.I.M. That's right, at one point M.O.D.O.K. created a team of hitmen and named it M.O.D.O.K., or Mercenary Organization Dedicated Only to Killing. At first, Gwenpool was just a cog in the M.O.D.O.K. organization, but she eventually rose to become its leader after she bested M.O.D.O.K. the villain.
Between land sharks, a Tigra turned gigantic and Gwenpool's M.O.D.O.K. connections, it would be folly to underestimate B.R.O.D.O.K., as silly as he is in name and appearance. At one point in the issue, Clint makes the very succinct point that every superhero worth their salt has congregated in New York City. This is pretty much the definition of vocational redundancy, and it means that the West Coast of the United States has been left undefended for years now. With so many strange, anomalous things emerging from the California ocean, it's reasonable to assume that the next A.I.M. might have taken root in the Golden State, intent on pilfering it for everything it's worth and then experimenting on the leftovers. B.R.O.D.O.K. is likely at the core of this plot, and maybe we'll find out a bit more about him next issue if he can keep his luscious lips to himself for half a second.